Apparatus for heating and cooling baby bottles are well know and have been in use for many years. For example, a U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,435 of Fosco Jr. discloses a device for heating and cooling a baby bottle or similar article with a thermal transfer fluid. The device includes a container for holding the bottle in contact with a fluid such as water. The bottle is held on a platform above the bottom of a container and the liquid flows upwardly against the bottle.
A more recent approach to a bottle warmer is disclosed in a Padilla, U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,276 for a device for unattended simultaneously heating and agitating a bottle of infant formula. As disclosed, the formula preparation device comprises a housing in which a reciprocating semi-cylindrical closed in sleeve is located. The sleeve, in conjunction with a semi-cylindrical concavity in a cover of the device produces a cylindrical cavity within which a formula bottle is horizontally agitated while being heated to provide a warmed, agitated bottle of formula.
Another approach to provided heated infant formula is disclosed in a Shields et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,498. As disclosed therein a receptacle-type heating device for automatically warming and vibrating a multitude of containers simultaneously in order to thaw, warm and mix cold or frozen liquid in an expedient and accurate manner. The device heats each container to a desired temperature using heated water with the container. The device includes a heater block having multiple walls therein and removable reservoirs disposed respectively within the wells for receiving the water. Heating elements are disposed between the removable reservoirs and the heater block within the walls for heating the removable reservoirs, the water and the containers placed therein. The container typically is a baby bottle, syringe, test tube or the like.
Finally, a container for promoting thermal transfer is disclosed in a U.S. Pat. No. 7,287,656 of Guilford III et al. The Guilford patent discloses a container that comprises an outer shell and an inner membrane with cooperatively defined a first compartment and a second compartment. The first compartment defines a first opening through which the first compartment receives a consumable liquid, the second compartment defines a second opening through which the second compartment receives a second liquid. The first compartment and the second compartment are shaped and arranged such that greater than 50% of the surface area of the second compartment is located adjacent to the first compartment. Alternatively, the first compartment and the second compartment may be shaped and arranged such that the first compartment substantially surrounds at least a portion of the second compartment.
Notwithstanding the above it is presently believed that there is a need and a potential commercial market for an improved baby feeding apparatus of the type disclosed herein. There should be a need and a potential market for such devices because they provide an apparatus for preparing, weighing and warming infant formula with audio instructions. In addition the devices in accordance with the present invention are durable, easy to use with verbal instructions for their use, and presently believed to be manufactured at a competitive cost.